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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty units in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “We had a pair of severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a shrub. He and the other military members were transferred to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”